This invention relates to a method of treating fresh fruit, and in particular to a method of treating fresh fruit so that the fruit will maintain its fluids when canned as a shelf product.
When fresh fruit is picked and packed, it often is frozen until needed. However, when fresh fruit is frozen, the juice separates from the fruit when thawed, causing up to 50% loss in weight. The fruit juice can be separated or stabilized, but it cannot be placed back into the fruit itself. The fruit, without the juice as part of the fruit, shrinks and presents a less attractive, less desirable finished product. I do not know of any current method of treating fresh fruit before it is frozen which will enable the juice to stay in the fruit when the fruit is thawed.
Present methods of treating fresh fruit include adding sugars and stabilizers to the fruit prior to freezing. The stabilizers tend to thicken the juice when the fruit is thawed. The sugar is added to increase the solids content of the fruit. However, neither the sugar not the stabilizer will help keep the juice in the fruit; the juice will still separate from the fruit when it is thawed.
Fresh fruit is also pasteurized or sterilized when packed. This produces a good tasting product, but does not aid in keeping the juice in the fruit and the fruit looses its firmness.